weather doesn't effect a regional ice company the
way it effects a local one. IE: if it is raining in
Miami there is good weather in Dallas and vise versa,
it all evens out over the course of the year.
As
for preparing for a big holiday such as the 4th of
July, typically ice companies make as much as they can,
store it up and pray they do not run short. If they do
run short big accounts get the Ice and little
accounts get shorted.
Unless your are are a large
regional company like Package Ice. when you run out of ice
on Florida you ship it from Indiana and loss money
in the process. P.I. does not charge for added cost
of shipping.
As far tech resource for evaluating
performance the Ice Industry is STONE AGE... There is only
one measurement did we sell more or less ice than
last year?
As for the 4th of July, nobody has ever
made money or lost money for the year based on what
they did for sales on the 4th of July. It is just one
day in 365 days of the year though it be a good one.
Bubbie, love your message dated 6/27/00. Your same longwinded statement was used by P.I. to explain there bad year in 2000. Your a genius.
Understand your answer. Would it seem prudent for
the Ice Industry to move from the Stone Age to the
21st century? Part of what made their stock
interesting was the technology in the bagger system. Seems as
though the carrot that was held out for investors was a
virtual carrot. When the investors bit on it, there was
nothing but air.
The traditional ice business
seemed like the meat and potatoes. While the retailers
were going through the learning curve and accepting
the new technology, the old ice delivery method would
be there to make them feel secure. Obviously, there
are businesse requiring ice that may not meet the
profile for an in-store bagger, and those would be
continued to be served from the traditional plants, but
perhaps in an innovative way. The rising prices in
gasoline, and no way to control it, the loss of an ice
plant due to fire, the ammonia accident - all of these
things would seem like enough boost for someone to
'invest the better mouse trap'.
Guess I should
have been more prudent when the terms 'disruptive
technology' was used to style the bagger machine technology.
The bagger should really help control the
disruptions. Seems like if you have a problem with 10 bagger
machines, it would not impact your business like an entire
ice plant disappearing, or your cost to run your
entire rolling stock increases by 50% - 100% in a few
months.
The company got on the radar screen by
promoting its technology. What has happend within for it to
have regressed? How can a company that made news,
raised funding, purchased competitors based on
technology be so far behind in managing its operations with
technology? Is that the real reason they left the Nasdaq?
They gave up on technology and went back to doing
business the old way once they gained market share. Don't
they realize that someone else is going to be the
Packaged Ice of their market if they don't get back out
there and start leading their market in innovation?
In response to your question in your posting of
June 28 in regard to "how could a company get so far
behind?", think in basic terms of EBITDA Margin and Return
On Capital. There is a major gag between what is and
what could be...rather than be redundant see many of
my earlier postings for more detail regarding this
industry and value potential thereof.
This "disruptive technology" has been around long
before PI came on the scene.
Aim Mfg. out of Wichita
Falls, Texas I believe was the first company to
manufacture an on premise machine that made ice , bagged
it,heat sealed the bag and dropped into the ice
merchandiser.This was back in the 1970's.
The disruptive part is
when PI used this technology to go into markets and
sell this idea to large grocery chains then after
getting the business they would apprroach the local
plants and tell them they had lost all of their large
accounts, so they could either sell out to them or
..else.
My admiration goes out to the plants that haven't
sold out due to intimidation a but have hung in there.